I am having a recurring nightmare of an issue with my Addams Family lower right flipper. The symptoms are that it will lock in the up position in game mode. It appears to just be the holding current windings and not the strong current windings that remain energized.

So far, I have:
- replaced the coil
- replaced both diodes on the coil
- swapped a Fliptronics II board in
- replaced all of the transistors for the lower right flipper on the Fliptronics I board
- verified all the resistors and diodes for the lower right flipper on the Fliptronics I board
- verified the EOS switch

The last one is where I started to tear my hair out. When I put the game into switch test mode, the flippers all work 100%. They flip and return as expected. If I put the game into game mode, the lower right flipper locks up on the first press of the flipper button.

When I have swapped Fliptronics II boards in, it has almost always worked for a while. Then the stick up occurs again. When I swap the original Fliptronics I board back in, it almost always works for a while. I have checked and all the connectors are good. No broken wires. Switch test looks good.

If anyone has ever seen this and wants to share the fix, I would be most appreciative. I am about to the end of patience with this issue.

Thanks,

ken

Flipper falls when powered off.

If I press on it lightly when it is stuck up I can feel the coil is energized.

ken

I'll try to take a look at it tonight. I know it registers the EOS when I manually move it in the switch test. I don't recall if it is a single or double switch though.

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep 'em coming.

ken

The flipper switches are double switches. The EOS switch is a single.

Well, it seems to be fixed now. I finally just pulled the EOS switch and replaced it. When I looked at the old one, somebody had used sandpaper on it and it had cratered one side, so it was mostly making contact some of the time. As I am writing this, I realize I should have taken pictures of the bad switch as a poster child for why you don't use sandpaper on switches.

It wasn't as quick a decision as it sounds from the above. I tried verifying connectivity by hooking my multi-meter to it and manually flipping it. I put it into voltage mode and clipped it to the solenoid. What really killed me was when I had the meter on the coil it refused to lock on at first. In hindsight, what I had done while manually closing the switch was to slightly adjust the switch to allow new areas to contact each other. Eventually it failed and the voltage stayed on. While it was locked on, I lifted the playfield to verify that the switch was closed. When I touched it, the coil released. That was when I decided I didn't have anything to lose by replacing it.

Next time, I will just replace the switch. But all in all, I am much more knowledgeable in the ways of the flipper. So I have that going for me.

Thanks for all the help. It encouraged me to keep trudging along until it got resolved. Next up Whitewater and the two flipper reset!

ken